CHAPTER 19

We spent hours wandering through tunnels and hallways and rooms both large and small. There were various things that would have disrupted our portal and therefore needed to be destroyed. It seemed like the problem was dense things—machines, stocks of metal, tools, things like that. Fortunately, the guidestone was flexible about what counted as 'destroyed'; when we needed to destroy several carts full of iron ingots it was enough to dump them into a smelter, wait until they were melted, and then blow up the smelter so liquid iron leaked all over the floor. Many of the rooms we passed through were empty. It looked like it had been set up for a much larger population than was currently here, and most of the workrooms and dormitories (of which there were enough for several thousand occupants) were empty. It was possible that the place wasn't even finished, since we encountered many dead-end corridors or corridors that ran in loops for no apparent reason.

We met and killed small groups of demons and monstrous animals, and ran from two larger groups. The small worker demons were useless fighters; they mostly ran from us but the ones who attacked died easily enough. The beefy guard demons were more of a problem; my human friends were typically outmatched one-on-one against them and against the animals that some of them used as partners. I, on the other hand, could take the demons' heckin' heads off with one bite and crater the stupid hellbeasts with one paw swipe. (I refused to call them 'helldogs' even though they did look pretty canine aside from the spikes and foot-long fangs. Clearly they were hyenas or something equally stupid.)

Three times we met a snake-looking demon that was more problematic; their hide was too tough for Estelle's arrows and they were too fast for me or Eugene to close the distance without getting bitten. Eugene was too squishy to take a hit from them and they were fast enough to get their teeth in me before I could swat them, as I discovered when we met the first one. I couldn't heal, so getting bitten was bad. Fortunately, they didn't play nice with others so we only met them as singletons, never groups, and that gave us a winning strategy. Marcus would hold the stinky thing back with his spear while Eugene and I guarded his flanks and Eugene charged up Fist of the Gods. The massive column of golden energy would descend like a thunderbolt and there would be nothing left of the demon aside from a crispy skeleton.

Attunement came in floods, enough that I unlocked and bought that Uncommon node.

Rapid Restoration Rank: Uncommon Duration: Passive Max Level: 10

You recover (Level) mana per minute up to the maximum value of your mana pool. (i.e. This Skill will not restore lost Spirit.) Your Restoration stat continues to work normally.

Intriguingly, it had five connections off of it: three Common, one Uncommon, and a Rare. Curiosity itched at me but I was a self-controlled dog and not a stupid spazmo cat (as Dad liked to refer to HazelKitty when she was being crazy), so instead of unlocking any of them I held onto my Attunement for more important things, like unlocking it for my friends.

A few hours and several dozen demons later I was able to unlock Rapid Restoration for Eugene. I felt badly that I couldn't do it for Marcus and Estelle too but the costs went up too much after unlocking so many things today. Still, everyone looked much more relaxed after Eugene bought it, since we had been depending so much on his Fist of the Gods. Combat Skills were typically mana-intensive and normal Restoration did not restore mana fast enough for the kind of nigh-continuous engagements we were in. Unfortunately, Rapid Restoration didn't work for me; my best guess was that Dyadic Unity was working against me, treating the mana regeneration as healing and therefore the worms prevented it.

Four hours after arriving in this domain we stopped for food and water, then an hour later we stopped for a potty break. There were no bathrooms so we had to use one of the small storage rooms that appeared at irregular intervals. That was one of the least pleasant parts of our little adventure, since all of us were thoroughly housebroken. Fortunately, Estelle had been smart enough to loot a velvet cloak worn by one of the demons so the humans were able to cut that up in order to take care of business. Obviously, we left the pieces behind afterwards.

"I need a break," Eugene said at last. "There's another of those storerooms up ahead. Let's barricade it and catch some zees."

Estelle shrugged. "If you can't keep going then I guess we need to." She turned and walked into the room before a furious Eugene could say anything.

"I'm sure she didn't mean it that way," I said quietly.

"She meant it exactly that way."

I didn't know what to say so I said nothing. Dad had repeatedly told Eddy how that was the better strategy whenever Mom was 'in a mood'. Dad always nodded very seriously when he said that and then he and Eddy would laugh. I really missed hearing him laugh.

This room was larger than most of the storerooms we'd been in, at least forty feet on a side. The walls were lined with empty shelves and the main part of the floor was filled with wheeled wooden boxes six feet long and three feet high and wide. They were all identical, each one stamped with a logo on the top. As I entered, Estelle was unrolling her bedroll and Marcus was poking through the boxes.

Eugene pulled out his bedroom with short, angry motions and spread it as far as possible from Estelle. I curled up in front of the door with my tail over my nose for warmth.

"Hey, check this out," Marcus said, just as I was drifting off to sleep.

We all looked up.

"These boxes are all pretty light and they're unlocked, except for these three," he said, pointing at the ones deepest in the corner. He pushed experimentally on the one in front of him and could barely get it rolling. "Metal for the weapons, maybe? If so, why is it locked, and why is it so far from any of the workrooms?"

Eugene was beside him in a flash. "Let's check." He pulled a short crowbar out of his pack.

Murray coughed loudly.

Eugene paused and looked over. "Problem?"

"Hm?" Murray said. "Sorry, what?"

"Is there a problem with me opening this?"

"How should I know? Even if I did I couldn't tell ya, cuz—"

"—you don't do exposition. Yeah, we know. Do you want to be standing next to me when I pry this thing open?"

Murray hesitated. "I, ah...well. Seems like answerin' dat would pretty much be expositin', amirite? You do you, man."

Eugene stared at him for several seconds, then turned back to the box and tried without success to slip the blades of his crowbar into the hair-thin gap between the top and side of the box.

"I'm getting into this thing one way or another," he told Murray. "Unless you say something, you're going to be standing here when I do."

Murray looked conflicted. "I don't t'ink ya gonna be able to get inta it," he said after a moment.

"Challenge accepted," Eugene replied with a grin. He tucked the crowbar back into his pack and pulled out a small hand-cranked drill.

"You brought a drill?" Marcus asked, bemused.

"I brought the crowbar and a hatchet. The drill and a few other things I picked up in one of the workshops." He set the tip of the drill on top of the box and started turning the crank. The drill didn't bite at all so he pushed down harder, then leaned his full weight on it until the bit broke.

Murray snorted.

"I thought you were exhausted and needed to sleep?" Estelle asked Eugene.

"The flying rat obviously thinks there's something good in here," Eugene said. "I want to know what it is."

Marcus chewed his lip for a moment, then nodded to himself. "Fine. Take it into the hall, because we're going to need some room. I'll lock my spear and we'll ram the box into it at speed."

"What?"

"Spatial Lock lets me make my spear immovable and invulnerable. It also makes it do more damage when something runs into it." He shrugged. "Don't ask me why."

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"Wasn't going to. Skills are weird. C'mon, let's shift this thing."

They shifted boxes around until there was a path to the door and then they leaned on the side of the box, pushing as hard as they could. Very slowly, it started to roll...very, very sloooowly. I watched, bemused, as it creaked towards the door and caught on the edge and stopped.

"A little help here?" Marcus asked archly.

I put the top of my head against the box, crouched down, and leaned in. The box started moving immediately.

"That Skill of his is such bullshit," Eugene said, shaking his head and grinning.

I snorted.

We got the box into the hallway and lined up. Marcus went down the hall a hundred feet and used Spatial Lock on his spear.

Murray whimpered, too softly for the humans to notice but clear to my enhanced canine ears.

{Problem?} I asked.

"...No."

{You sure?}

"......Yes?"

"Okay." I put my head against the box and started pushing, with Marcus and Eugene running alongside to keep it on course. A few yards before the spear we stopped and let it go.

The cart slammed to a halt with a massive crash!. The spear had gone in through the upper-right corner of the front, up at an angle. The side was partially torn away from the top, and a slew of metallic somethings clattered to the ground. We all approached carefully. Estelle trailed behind, her bow in hand and an arrow nocked.

"Oh boy," Murray whispered.

Eugene took a knee, stirring through the irridescent half-moon plates about the size of my paw that lay spilled across the floor. "What is this stuff?" he asked.

The three humans and I exchanged confused looks and helpless shrugs. And then we all turned to Murray, who was staring at the materials with eyes so wide I could see white all around the edges.

{Murray? What is it?} I asked and was surprised when he didn't translate.

He continued to stare blankly until finally I reached out and poked him with a paw.

"Huh? What?"

{What's wrong?}

He hesitated, but his voice was firm when he finally spoke. "We need ta go. Right now. Leave dat stuff where it is and let's go. Mahcus, you still got da portal stone, right? Pop it off and get us home."

"Why?"

"We aren't leaving this stuff," Eugene said, shoveling the plates into his backpack.

"Put dose down," Murray snapped. "We need ta get da Heaven outta heah. Youse guys t'ought dat da gahds was dangerous? Dat weren't nuttin'. Seriosly, we needs ta go. Right now."

{Why?}

Murray fluttered nervously, looking from one side to the other and biting his lip until a drop of blue blood appeared.

"We're not leaving without more details," Marcus said.

"Can't ya jest take my woid for it?" Murray begged. "I promise, dis is seriously bad news. Even knowin' about it would be risky for ya."

Marcus looked at Estelle, then back to Murray. "No. Spell it out."

Murray sighed in frustration. "Dose are made outta orichalcum," he said reluctantly, pointing to the half-circle plates. "Dere nutso valyabul. So valyabul dat dey only get used ta make major magical ahtifacts...t'ings like scale armah fah Lord Gliv 'imself, which is what I t'ink dose are prolly gonna be, given da shape and how many dere are. He's Commandah ah da 17th Legion but he's not gettin' promoted ta Marshal or nuttin' unless he's got da propah geah. Dah only reason I can t'ink of fah dese t'ings ta be in some random unlocked storeroom way fah out from anyt'ing else we've seen is because someone in dis place was stealin' 'em and didn't have noplace bettah ta hide 'em. Nobody, not even one of dose balor demons youse guys have been killin', would be dumb enough ta steal orichalcum from Lord Gliv widdout havin' someone ta sell it to and take soivice wit' aftahwoids so dat Lord Gliv can't shred dem and heal dem and shred dem for da next t'ousand years. I'm guessin' dat da Marshall of Da Foist Hundred, Lord Gliv's boss and da guy Lord Gliv would have ta fight ta get promoted, hoid about dis place, knew dat it meant a challenge was comin', and sent an agent ta recruit someone heah ta do da stealin'."

"So this stuff is powerful enough to make armor fit for a demon lord?" Eugene asked. "Sounds incredibly valuable."

"Seriously? Dat's da piece ya held onto? Dis stuff is a political chewtoy fah two crazy powahful demon lords, ya nimrod! Youse guys have been leavin' little bits o' yahselves all ovah da place down heah. Ya shit and piss in dat one room, little bits o' blood and flesh and sweat wherevah ya fought somethin'...shoot, youse guys send out little drips o' watah every time ya breathe. It's all infused wid tiny bits o' ya essence. If Lord Gliv brought in a really freakin' good fahrensic mage—and he will!—den he could track ya across domains from alla dat. If ya very lucky and if none of da stuff is missing den maybe he won't waste time on dat. If even one scale has been removed, even if it was already taken by whoevah stole da stuff in da foist place, den Lord Gliv'll be aftah us fah sure."

{Us? Yay! You said 'us'!}

Murray glared at me. "Don't be makin' more of it den it was. I ain't witchoo, I'm just a translaytah imp. I woik heah."

{You liiike us. You liiike us. You think we're neat and you liiike us.} I panted happily at him.

Murray grunted in annoyance. "Mahcus, why ain't ya popped da portal yet? We gotta go!"

Marcus and Estelle exchanged looks, doing that silent communication thing that I could never follow.

"Right," Marcus said, unslinging his pack and rummaging inside. "We're out of here. Eugene, put that stuff back."

"Fuck you."

"Excuse me?" Marcus said, his voice going cold. Estelle unslung her bow and nocked an arrow, but she kept it pointed at the floor and the string undrawn.

"I said fuck you. This cart comes with us. You heard the imp: We've already left bits of ourselves down here, so we're traceable no matter what. Our best chance is to take all this stupidly valuable stuff back to Hellsport, sell it for traveling money, and get out of town. I went to Hellsport for the money, and this will set me up for life. I'm not leaving it."

Marcus paused. Finally he looked over at Murray. "How likely is it that Gliv could track us based on what we've left behind?"

"How da Heavens should I know?! I'm a translaytah imp, not a freakin' trackin' mage!"

"Take your best guess. You must have heard stories about trackers pursuing people—demons who pissed off a more powerful demon, mortals, whatever. In those stories, does running through a portal help?"

Murray rubbed his neck. "I mean...dose are jes stories. Stuff dat ya use to scare da littles, or dat ya tell ta mortals soze dey don't try ta weasel outta a contract. Dey ain't solid evidence."

"Best guess. Could he track us through a portal?"

Murray grimaced. "I really dunno. I'm not even sure how we wuz able ta portal here. Dis is a high security facility, it shoulda been woided."

"'Woided'?" Estelle asked.

"Ya know. Woids. Magic symbols dat ya write on somethin' ta protect it."

"Oh, wards."

"Dat's what I said."

"It really isn't."

"Getting off track," Marcus said. "Can they track us through a portal? Best guess."

Murray looked extremely unhappy. "Prolly not? Not if da portal has been closed fah any length o' time, at least. And a small portal dat wasn't open long might be hahdah ta track t'rough. I'm really jes guessin' doh. Like I said, I'm a imp, not a trackin' mage. Shoot, I ain't even met no trackah."

Eugene nodded. "Our best chance is if no one realizes that any of the stuff is missing. Best way to do that is to rearrange the boxes in there so that it's not obvious one is gone, then we push this box through the portal."

There was a pause as Marcus and Estelle considered that. They exchanged another of those speaking looks and then she nodded and he shrugged.

"Fine," Marcus said as Estelle put her arrow back in the quiver and slung her bow. "But we can't leave yet. We need to find wherever the guidestone is leading us so that we can get to the next step on Athos's path." He pulled the guidestone out of his pocket and held it up. "We're close. If I've been keeping track of our progress so far then I'd guess it's not more than a few miles, straight line."

"That could be a long way in these tunnels," Eugene said doubtfully. "Better that we grab the money and go. We can come back later and find it."

"First, no, we don't know that we can. This place will be swarming with guards once the theft is discovered. If we can find the next step on the path then we should be able to go home, deal with everything there, then portal back to that second-step place without having to come through here again. Second, if this hypothetical tracking mage can follow us then I'd rather that we led them to some other random dimension than back to ours."

That gave Eugene pause. "Fine. Help me get all this stuff back into the box."

o-o-o-o

Moving the box was a problem. It had wheels, but they were small and a bit stiff. It was so heavy that once it got moving it was hard to make it stop moving, and turning it was like turning a barge. (At least, that's what Marcus said. I'd never seen a barge.) We ended up slicing one of Eugene's blankets up into strips that Marcus and Eugene could use as tow ropes while I ranged in front and Estelle brought up the rear, keeping an eye out behind us.

The guidestone led us to another of the workshops. This one was abandoned, but fortunately the key that we had brought with us worked to open these pillars as well.

"What is that thing, anyway?" Estelle asked, gesturing to the weird blob of blood-red flesh inside the pillar. Like with the others we had seen, it had four thick tubes coming out of it, two up and two down, with a large nodule on the upper side. Sparkles of silver and gold and ultramarine light danced and flickered across its surface.

"Look, youse already blackmailed me fah infahmation about da orichalcum, and I might get executed fah not reporting da Boss heah after he bit ol' Grumpy in half. I ain't too inclined ta answer questions." Murray looked at the fleshy blob with almost physical hunger but said nothing further.

"Okay, okay. Let's just hope this is the last one we need to destroy."

o-o-o-o

As it happened, that was the last one we needed to destroy. The explosion was more powerful than the last, demolishing the entire place and collapsing the tunnels for a dozen yards. We were far enough out that we spent a minute or so choking on dust but were not actually harmed. We paused for water and then got back on the way.

After another hour of hiking, the guidestone led us to a random chunk of hallway and then stopped, pulsing softly to indicate we had arrived.

"Well, that was easier than expected," Eugene said, looking at the glowing stone.

"A little too easy, if you ask me," Estelle said. "None of it adds up. This was a secret weapons facility, but it was way bigger than it needed to be. A lot of guards for the size of the worker population, and the guards were all powerful, but they weren't well coordinated. We should have seen all of the guards descending on us immediately after the first worker escaped. Instead, we run into infrequent small patrols. And why were the workshops spread out like that?"

"Excellent questions," Marcus said. "Perhaps for another time?"

Estelle grunted her frustration but nodded in acknowledgement.

"Okay, here we go," Marcus said. The guidestone started to shine brighter and brighter in his hand until all of us had to look away. There was a mental 'sound' like glass breaking and suddenly the stone was gone and there was a square portal hanging in midair, glowing carmine red with traces of ultralavender.

With a collectively indrawn breath, we pushed our box filled with stolen supermetal through the portal leading to an unknown and hazardous dimension.